February 15, 2006

Flipper performs "Way of the World" (video)

WFMU's Brian Turner hipped me to some great videos being hosted by the controversial youtube website last week, including this clip of legendary San Francisco noiseniks Flipper performing the classic dirge from their Generic LP, apparently as seen on some local access TV show. [Download 23 MB .wmv file]

The video was posted by a youtube user calling themselves "Texaspoutine", and whoever they may be, they've got exemplary taste for the audio/visual treats, and I encourage you all to head over to the index of Texaspoutine's other videos if you're a fan of artists like The Mummies, The Victims, Screamers, The Scientists, Spacemen 3, Suicide, and more.

Though it's far from an unusual opinion to be carting around these days, Flipper records meant a whole lot to me when I first discovered them, especially Generic (which, although released in 1982, was still enjoying regular airplay by the time I found out about college radio some years later.) Hell, they've been played 53 times on WFMU just since May of 2001, so that's evidence of some sort of curse or accolade, right?

As an overweight and zit-plagued kid who was eager to sculpt an identity based on almost anythingmy peers hated or didn't know about, I took to songs like "Way of the World" and "Get Away"
(streaming Real Audio) almost immediately. In hindsight, I think they were the first band
whose music felt like real art to me, though my perceptions didn't get anywhere near that lofty until years later. To that end, Flipper has (interestingly) maintained their relevance better than almost any of their contemporaries, simply for being too smart, too weird, and for having too good a sense of self-awareness to fall into the pit of nostalgia. Like many of the best artists, no one really "got" Flipper, knew what they were trying to do, or understood why they kept bothering to do it. Even though they re-formed in the early 90s (sans original bassist Will Shatter, who tragically passed away of a heroin O.D. in 1987) and released a record on Rick Rubin's Def American label, Flipper proved they were still capable of delivering the kind of utterly mental pleasures they'd laid out more than a decade earlier. Witness and compare:

Not many people really cared about Flipper in 1982, and 11 years didn't make much difference. What can I say, the world ain't a kind place and I doubt you'd hear surviving members Bruce Lose, Ted Falconi, or Steve DePace try to claim otherwise.

Last I heard, the band had reformed once again and recently played a benefit to help save CBGBs -- An effort which failed, as the club is scheduled to have its lease yanked in October. Figures. Flipper still rules, okay?

Comments

Although I find Generic to be extremely overrated. It sounds like the Kids Of Widney High to my ears. Now "Gone Fishin'" is their unsung masterpiece! Vibraphone & saxophones! yowza! A bizarre album.

Flipper was pure nihilsim, but admitting that they were so frail and fucked up...no nyhc macho man pretense.

I'm dying to hear or see anything of the reunion show. I saw some pictures and Bruce Lose sat on a bar stool the whole night with some wires running from some contraption in his front pocket to his back. the perils of being a junkie, I guess.

I have this whole Cable Access Flipper set ripped into two very good looking high quality AVIs, if you're interested. This was Ruth Schwartz's (from Mordam records) show, I believe.

Back in the day, when I was a DJ at Penn State's student radio station (then known as WDFM), I put together a mashup of Flipper's version of "I Know an Old Lady (Who Swallowed a Fly)" with the one I knew as a kid done by Burl Ives, with them trading lines. Wish I still had a copy of that....

I saw Flipper at CBGB after having caught them at the Mud Club. At the CB's show, while playing Sex Bomb, they one by one passed off their instruments to audience members until the whole band was standing in front of the stage watching strangers play the song.
And then there was the time Bruce Lose and I got thown out on our faces after an aborted Studio 54 Flipper gig...ask me about it sometime.
Toddd

Gone Fishin was the turning point for me. Up 'til then, no matter how strange, unusual, or odd anything seemed, "different" just didn't mean the same as it did after hearing that album. Generic is not too shabby either.

Flipper is the greatest punk band ever. Signed, sealed, and delivered. No one comes close. Everything they ever released was brilliant. I need to find more of their catalog, though..."Generic" and "Public Flipper Limited" are unbelievable. "Public Flipper" is one of the all-time best live albums ever made - pure drunken genius. Right now I've got the "Public Flipper" version of "Sex Bomb" shredding my speakers...no better way to begin the day. Last thing...Ted Falconi is a terribly underrated guitarist. Actually, I think the entire band as musicians were totally underrated. Even as wasted as they were, keeping the grooves together night after night...that shows a lot to me.

One more thing...I should mention that it seems very possible that the full Flipper catalog is going to get reissued soon. Keep your ears open for more information in general. I'm not sure on what label, but from all accounts it might be this year.